On 8/2/07, Nicholas Bishop <nicholasbishop@...400...> wrote:
So, the filter dialog now tracks the selection as suggested. Regarding improved simple controls, here's what I'm thinking about:
The filter effects dialog gets a toggle for switching between simple and advanced mode. Advanced uses the current setup, which shows pretty much all the complexity of the underlying svg. The simple mode will keep the list of filters at the left, but will remove the filter primitive list (and connections graph), replacing it with a list of effect groups, such as Drop Shadow, Blur, Invert Colors, etc.
I'm not sure it's a good idea, for several reasons:
- Not simple enough: Instead of having to manage just two entities - the object and some effect applied to it - the user will have to manage three: first, coordinate the object with some numerically-named filter in the left list, and then coordinate that filter with a description in the right column. This adds an unnecessary step and still exposes the user to the "filter1234567" machinery which is absolutely unnecessary in the "simple mode".
- Depending on simple/advanced mode, the right column changes its contents in an inconsistent way - from a list of preset filters to a tree of the chosen filter. This is bad for usability. Ideally, an "advanced mode" must only _add_ some more controls, but changing the function of existing controls is very confusing and must be avoided.
- With this all-in-the-dialog setup, it's impossible to create verbs that would assign a preset filter to selected objects. This is bad because verbs are much more accessible: less clicks are necessary to select a verb in the menu, you can assign keyboard shortcuts to a verb, and you can even call it from the command line. These are big advantages.
Additionally, after this is done, all the filter stuff (including blend mode and blur) could be removed from the Fill and Stroke dialog, so that all things filter related will be grouped into the Filter Effects dialog.
Also disagree. You're now thinking as a developer who knows that blur is one of the SVG filters. But a user may be totally unaware of that, and furthermore, not too interested in that at all. For a user, blur is a fundamental visual property of an object, just like opacity. So it makes a lot of sense to be able to adjust it simply and directly, right next to where you adjust opacity. Same applies to the blend and composite modes (which are naturally even closer related to opacity than blur).
Of course we cannot put all the filters there, and many of them are too specialized and obscure anyway, so we must show restraint in what filters we promote to the status of a "fundamental visual property" - but I think blur and blending modes are unquestionable.
So, for these reasons, I still prefer the three-tier system I have proposed:
1. Blur slider and blend+composite modes (combined in one dropdown list) must be in Fill&stroke, but please remove any mention of "filter" there - it's out of place and confusing.
2. A set of preset filters like Drop Shadow or Bevel, all coded as verbs and added to the Filters sub(menu), ideally with a way for the user to easily add his own presets (e.g. via some XML config files).
3. For the people who know what they're doing, your current Filters dialog offering total control over all the details of a filter.